Heart of the Wolf : Dawn
by Jayfeattheris Awesome
Summary: "In the darkness, the dawn will break and night shall fall. As dispair comes to pass, teh horizon will rise on the mountain stone. When the river runs dry, the blizzard will rage. When all seems lost, at the end of all things, the frost will hold the fate of Middle-Earth." The storm of war is brewing. And soon it must break... Rated T for battle scenes.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

_Long ago, before the dwarves took up residence in the Lonely Mountain, there lived on the mountain sides a mighty breed of creature, noble and powerful, watching over the mountain with eyes that could see through to the hearts of the evil. They were the Wolves of Lonely Order ,capable of speech and deeds that lay forgotten in time._

_ The members of this noble species were no dumb beasts that thought of nothing but killing, but creatures with a sense of honor, and were capable of loyalty that went beyond that of even a royal guard dog._

_ In the battle against Sauron, The Wolves of the Lonely Order, or better known as Ereborians, fought alongside the men and elves as a small taskforce with the single purpose of getting into Mordor's deeper lands and approach the enemy from behind. However, the enemy had been prepared._

_ The wolves were slain by the dozens, and were forced to retreat away from the battle, for they knew that if they stayed, the extinction of their species would be eminent. They fled, forced to leave the bodies of their dead behind, and they have not been seen since._

_ But, they days are growing darker. The western skies are getting redder, and a prophecy delivered years ago during the nearing of the end of the rein of Smaug, comes nearer to revealing itself. And soon, the Wolves of Erebor must run again, or all will be lost._

_ " In the darkness, the dawn will break and bring the night to fall. As despair comes to pass, the horizon will rise on the mountain stone. When the river runs dry, the blizzard will rage. When all seems lost, at the end of all things, the frost will hold the fate of Middle-Earth."_

_These words spoken to me by Galadriel during my quest to the Lonely Mountain with the dwarfs have begun of late to echo in my dreams. They can signify nothing but disaster, and, with the echoes growing louder with each passing night as I make my way to the Shire, I cannot help but feel that a storm is coming… And soon it must break._


	2. The wolves of Erebor

The Wolves of Erebor

"The hobbit will be fine, yes. He will need a few days to recover, but the poison is gone." Elrond told a man with an incredibly long beard. " You do realize that it will never completely heal? He will have it with him most of his life."

"Yes I know." The old man replied.

"You also realize that the ring cannot stay here. Sauron's forces are massing, his eye is fixed on Rivendell. The ring cannot stay in Rivendell." The elf continued.

The man was silent for a few moments, and then spoke in a quieter voice; what he had to say was not for all ears. " How long has it been since you sent for the Lonebud juice?" he asked.

"It has been over a year, Gandalf. They should be arriving in three days' time with it. It is a long journey, and I hope that they have not lost any of their cargo. I've alerted the lookouts not to shoot when they see them, so that they aren't mistaken as hostile forces." The elf replied in a similar quiet voice.

"Good," Gandalf said," then they should be able to spare a few days for the meeting, should they not?"

Elrond nodded in agreement, and then spoke. " They will need some time, of coarse, to recover their strength. It could not have been an easy journey."

Suddenly, a horn sounded in the air. Gandalf smiled. "That would be the Gondorian, would it not?" he chuckled. They looked down to the gate, and saw a man with red hair and cloths with the White Tree of Gondor on them ride into the clearing. Soon behind him rode an elf with pale blond hair and a brown cloak.

Soon after them came the dwarfs, some very old looking. They gathered on a stone balcony and began to chat, waiting for the meeting to begin. The doors opened, and everybody murmured with surprise when a hobbit with curly black hair walked in with Gandalf the Gray.

" …didn't know that a hobbit was attending the meeting!"

"…rare to see them outside of the Shore…Sheer… Shire… Whatever that place is called."

"… really excellent cooks, I hear." Where just a few things that were murmured around the clearing as the hobbit sat down on a small chair.

Then, the company went silent as a sound cut through the air, beautiful and rich like a mixture between a flute and a hum. It wasn't loud, but the tone was pure, as if whoever was making it had master only the most graceful tones.

Elrond sat up from his chair. "So the Wolves of Erebor have come." He said.

Everybody looked at each other, then rushed to the end of the balcony and peered over the edge to look at the front gate. Three figure could be seen bounding gracefully through the trees down the slope to the gate, their powerful muscles rippling underneath sleek, soft fur. They were wolves. Not nasty, raggedy creatures. Their fur was fluffy and well-groomed, and their muzzles were unbitten by ticks or fleas, as if the creatures actually cared for personal hygiene.

To those of the company who had seen a warg before, the wolves down in the clearing were a little bigger than a normal wolf, yet not as large a warg. The wolves each had a harness of leather on them, with chainmail between some of the straps to protect their chest and the back of their necks. There were two small pouches on either side of the harness of each wolf, appearing to each have a small bottle in each pack.

Several elves went down to meet the wolfs, going to each creature in turn and relieving them of their burden. They watched as the wolves lay down on their sides to let the elves unstrap and remove the harnesses. Once the harnesses were off, the wolves rolled back over and dipped their heads to the elves, then turned to leave. They were about to pass through the gate when Elrond appeared, having somehow left while the rest of the company were watching the wolves.

He called them back, and beckoned with his hand for them to follow him. The wolves looked at each other, then followed. "What do you suppose he's doing? He's gotta be mad to let a wolf into Rivendell, let alone three of them that are such a size!" one of the dwarfs said.

"They are no mere wolves, Gimli, son of Gloin." Gandalf told him.

A few moments later, Elrond walked through the door to the balcony, and, one by one, the three wolves followed him in. Now much closer, the company was shocked to see the pelts of the wolves. The first wolf was a female, and her pelt was an unusual color indeed. Her face was the color of fire mixed with gold, and the farther down her body one looked, the color transferred subtly into gold. In the full light of the rising sun, her fur was outlined with golden fire.

The second wolf was a pure white female. Well, mostly pure white. Her face was black in an unusual pattern. A spike of black went down her muzzle, and two other spikes of black separated to run over her eyes and curved to the base of her ears. A third spike of black sprouted out of the middle where the two other spikes separated, and the point ended at her forehead.

The third wolf walked in, and was a little less remarkable as the first two. His pelt was midnight black, and his eyes were a shocking electric blue.

The wolves padded onto the balcony, their eyes wary, as if they didn't trust anyone they saw before them. Gandalf stepped forward to greet the lead wolf, the golden female. "Greetings, Dawn. I believe you don't remember, seeing as you were only a pup last time we met." He greeted her.

Dawn narrowed her eyes and looked Gandalf up and down, as if assessing him. Then, to the surprise of almost all of the company (except for Elrond and Gandalf, as well as the blond elf and Gloin), she spoke. "So… you are Gandalf the Gray. My mother spoke of you many times when she told us of her adventures with the dwarfs. She said you were old then. I would have expected you to have died by the time I had my pups." The she-wolf spoke at last.

Gandalf, looking a little offended, gave her a withering look. " Lets just say, I'm older than I look." He told her. " are you going to introduce us to your friends here?" he asked after a moment.

The she-wolf nodded. "Of course. This is my son, Night," she said waving her tail in the direction of the black wolf, who dipped his head to him as his name was spoken," and my daughter, Frost." She pointed her muzzle in the white she-wolf's direction, and she dipped her head as her brother had done.

Then, Frost spoke up. "We were told that we were making a delivery, not attending a meeting. So why gather us now?" she inquired.

It was Elrond's turn to speak "Everybody take a seat, and we will discuss this. True, you were called here to make an important delivery, though I will not mention the cargo, and I thank you for making the year-long journey to get here. Frodo. The ring." He said, calling the hobbit, who was obviously Frodo, to set down a golden ring down on the pedestal in the center of the balcony.

Everybody looked intrigued by it, but the wolves couldn't tell why. Dawn felt a chill of foreboding run along her spine. _This ring is evil_, the thought, and decided to break the silence with a question that she longed to have answered. "What is it? I can tell that it's evil, but what in the name of Lupus is it?" she asked.

" It is a ring, Dawn, daughter of River. A ring of such great power and evil that it has a mind of it's own." Elrond answered. Every hair on Dawn's pelt stood up in alarm, and she locked her gaze on the ring, as if she felt that it might attack her at any moment, and the other wolves seemed to feel the same way.

"It cannot harm you physically, but it takes you over mentally, makes you turn against those you know, turns your mind inside out." Gandalf reassured her, though she didn't much like the image he was giving her. Suddenly, a part of a story popped into her head, one that her mother had told her.

"Like Gollem?" she suggested. Gandalf stiffened.

"Yes, like Gollem." he told her.

The clearing went silent for a few moments, and then Gimli spoke up. " Well, if the thing is so much trouble, why don't we get on with destroying it?" he said. He unsheathed his axe, and, with a battle cry, rushed forward and slammed it onto the ring. There was a flash of sparks as the blade met the ring, and the wolves gave a small jump backward as the axe shattered into pieces, and the dwarf was set flying backwards, surprise written all over his face.

"The ring cannot be destroyed with an axe, Gimli. It was made in the fires of Mount Doom, and only there can it be un-made." Elrond said. "One of you must do this." He continued.

The clearing was silent for a few minutes, and then the red-haired Gondorian spoke. " One does not simply walk into Mordor. Not with ten thousand men could you storm the black gates successfully, and there are more dangers that lie in Mordor than just orcs. The great eye, is always watching, never blinking, never sleeping." He said.

The blond elf spoke up now. " There is no other choice. Somebody has to do it, or all will be lost" he said.

"And I'll suppose you'll be the one to do it?" Gimli snapped at him with un-hidden hostility. " I'd rather die, than see the ring in the hands of an elf!" he yelled.

With that, everybody got up, and started arguing. Dawn and the wolves shrank back, their ears flat on their heads. Dawn's fur pricked with discomfort._ It seems that Gandalf was right about the ring turning people against each other_, she thought.

Then, Frodo, who had not joined in the arguments, stood up and yelled something, thought Dawn could not tell what he said through the arguing. She tipped her muzzle to the sky, and let loose a howl that pierced through the air, and silenced the company. She gestured to Frodo with her muzzle to continue with what he was saying.

The hobbit gave her a grateful glance, and then repeated what he had said. "I will take the ring to Mordor." He announced.

Gandalf slowly closed his eyes and turned around, as if he had been fearing that the hobbit would offer to complete the task. " Then you will need a friend. I will come with you, Frodo Baggins, and serve to my best." He said and stood next to the hobbit.

Dawn flicked her ears to her companions and looked at them. Both wolves nodded, and with that, Dawn led her wolves to stand in front of Frodo. She lowered her head and stretched out one foreleg in a bow. " You shall have our teeth, our claws, and our loyalty." She vowed, then sat in between Frost and Night behind Frodo.

" And mine as well, beside the tooth and claw part." Aragorn said, taking a place near the hobbit.

The Gondorian also swore his allegiance and took a place behind the hobbit..

"And you shall have my bow." The elf said, also standing near Frodo.

With a glance around, Gimli stepped forward as well. " And my axe." He proclaimed, doing similar to the others.

"Frodo!" a shout sounded in the air as a hobbit with red, curly hair dashed out from a hiding spot and joined the others.

"It seems that it is impossible to separate you two, even when he is summoned to a secret meeting and you are not." Elrond said, a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Oi! We're coming too! " Identical voices said at the same time, and two _more_ hobbits dashed out from behind some nearby pillars to join the others.

Elrond looked over them all, surprise in his gaze at how many had offered to aid the young hobbit. "Twelve companions." he murmured. " Very well then. You will be the Fellowship of the ring."

The clearing once again fell temporarily silent, until broken by the voice of one of the front most hobbits. "All right then. Where are we going?" he inquired, and the hobbit next to him gave him a hopeless glance.

Dawn looked to the sky, and a cold breezed passed over the clearing. In the winds, she though she could hear a voice whispering a long-lost tale that had been forgotten in the tides and winds of the ages.

_The prophecy has come. _

** Okay, here we are. Chapters one and two or out of the way, all in a matter of hours. I spend my month brainstorming and/or writing my chapters, the I update them all at once on the same day, usually at the end of the month. But I was really excited about posting this story, so I decided to go ahead and post a day early. i am thinking about breaking this story into three diferent books, like the movies,, and if I do, the titles will likely be, in order ; Dawn, Riseing Night, and Breaking Frost.**

**Anyway, read and reveiw, and there ****_might_**** be a few more early posts. I do not own Lord of the Rings.**


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